According to Frank Gaffney writing in the Washington Times, what Ambassador Christopher Stevens was doing in Benghazi on September 11 was arranging the shipping of arms from Libya to the Syrian rebels. And who are our beneficiaries in Syria? Gaffney quotes the New York Times to the effect that most of the arms being sent to Syria “are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster.”

But is it true, as the Times suggests, that America wants to bolster more secular groups? Not according to Barry Rubin, who in an important article shows how Obama from the start of his presidency has systematically helped empower hard-line sharia-believers in the Muslim world.

The upshot is that Stephens, in the act of helping some jihadists, was killed by other jihadists. This is what the administration has been concealing.

Here, by the way, is Rubin’s own angle on the reason for the Benghazi attack:

In Libya, Obama basically determined the overthrow of the Muammar Qadhafi regime and the rebel victory in the civil war. He was father of a regime which is certainly not Islamist or anti-American but may either significantly appease or be overthrown by such forces. As the Libyan government’s patron, Americans will become the target of revolutionary Islamists who blame the United States for their rulers and understandably believe that attacking America is a necessary part of overthrowing them. That, of course, is why the U.S. ambassador was murdered.